^ 1/09 
.UJ1 



.107 



TS 1109 
.W7 
Copy 1 



The 
Creative Workman 



An Address Delivered Before The Technical 

Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry 

at the Spring Meeting, held at Dayton, Ohio, 

May 16, 1918 



By ROBERT B. WOLF, 

Manager, Spanish River Pulp and Paper Mills, Ltd. 
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada 



Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry 

117 East Twenty-fourth Street 

New York 



1918 



0^ 



i 5 7i 



The Creative Workman 



Use of Individual Progress Records as a Means of Making Work Interesting and Enjoyable 

By ROBERT B. WOLF 
Manager, Spanish River Pulp and Paper Mills, Ltd., Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. 




ODERN industry has to a great extent 
made life in our large manufacturing 
plant.-, almost unbearably mechanical. 
As a result, the workmen are in many 
cases in open rebellion against the en- 
tire system. The trouble arises clear- 
ly from a lack of realization of what 
human life is for. Therefore, an ana- 
lysis of the qualities in work which 
attract or repel us would surely be most helpful and, 
if carried far enough should reveal something of the 
meaning of life and of the individual's relationship 
to his whole environment. 

The success we have had in making the work of our 
paper machines interesting and therefore attractive to 
our machine operators will, I feel sure, prove helpful 
to others who are endeavoring to solve the individual 
problem. At any rate, it is a great pleasure to us to 
see how our men are beginning to enjoy work which, 
before the introduction of progress records, was not 
particularly attractive. The philosophy underlying 
our experience is, of course, not in any sense confined 
to the paper industry, and from previous experience 
T know can be widely extended. No philosophy of 
life, however, is valuable, unless it is capable of 
practical application, so I hope the illustrations which 
follow will prove to lie of real value as a concrete 
demonstration of the principles invoked. 

The development of this philosophy was based upon 
results obtained in The Burgess Sulphite Fibre Com- 
pany's mills at Berlin, X. H. There we were making 
sulphite pulp with its accompanying by-products, and 
had recorded almost all the operations in the process. 
We had, however, no experience in that plant with 
the recording of operations on paper machines, so 
when we started our work at the Sturgeon Falls plant 
of The Spanish River Co., we decided to undertake 
this investigation, especially as we were having con- 
siderable trouble with uneven weights of paper. We 
determined to go at this problem from the quality 
basis, as our experience at the "Burgess" plant had 
been that the quality records were the most important. 
Quantity records we found usually tended to make 
hard feeling among the men, as many of you have 
probably observed, where one machine crew disputes 
with another because of a difference of opinion as to 
who should be credited with a roll at the end of the 
shift. 1 found that the international officers of the 
Paper Makers Union felt very much the same way 
about it and were inclined to be instinctively opposed 
to the posting of production records. Quality records, 
however, are of a different nature, as they bring into 
play the reasoning, thinking power of man much more 
than quantity records: the latter reflect the physical 
side of his nature rather than the intellectual side. 
Wherever the competition is on a quality basis, co- 
operation results, and cooperation of this nature does 
not diminish the spirit of emulation but on the con- 
trary tends to strengthen it. 

Before referring to the illustrations which show in 
concrete form our results, I believe it will be helpful 



to review our general philosophy of management, 
f sincerely hope what I say will lie looked upon as 
simply my own interpretation of the facts as we 
have observed them, and even though 1 maj seem to 
be dogmatic at times, that you will be indulgent and 
consider this as possibly an inherent defect of any 
individual interpretation of a vital process. I feel 
that our experiences stand oul only as so many isolated 
and disconnected fragments unless we are able to con- 
nect them by a process of reflection into a philosophical 
concept. It is this concept of a law or principle which 
we can pass on to others, ami it is useful in propor- 
tion as it is practical. If it does not fit into the 
general scheme of life it is not worth our serious con- 
sideration. < >n the other hand, if it does prove its 
practical value, its presentation adds something to the 
sum total of human happiness. It is with this thought 
in mind, therefore, that T am taking the liberty of 
weaving a philosophy of management around the con- 
crete facts of our paper machine operations. 

The basic principle of our philosophy is that a 
man must be interested in his work in order to get 
good results. If he is not interested, he will not do 
his best. He is simply in this case reacting to ex- 
ternally applied force or stimulation, and is doing his 
work more because he is compelled to do it. from fear 
of either losing his job or being penalized in some 
way. A man in this frame of mind cannot do his best 
work- and will really do as little as possible. If the 
work is interesting, however, he works "from within 
out" as it were, because he desires to do so and not 
because someone is all the time "following him up." 
This type of worker is what we call the creative type 
and a plant is successful in direct proportion to the 
number of men that it has of this type. 

Ts the discontent and restlessness in and around our 
great over-specialized industrial plants fin spite of 
their so called welfare work) not due to the fact that 
the creative impulse of the worker has no chance to 
develop in them? Efficiency it seems to me has too 
often been made an end in itself to be attained at all 
costs regardless of individual wellbeing. In many of 
our mills and factories men are used simpb 
telligent machines and are given no opportunity to use 
their thinking powers. Regardless of how seeminglv 
well operated a plant of this kind may be, how ran it 
even approach a maximum of good results if g 
cent of its employees are not permitted to use their 
brains in their work"'' Does this form of industrialism 
differ very materially from that of the older mediaev d 
form of industrial slavery which Germany has so 
efficiently brought up to date? Tt is no accident 
that practically the entire working world is willing 
to make untold sacrifices to crush out (his giant 
organization which seeks to dominate by repression, 
and it seems to me that the only way that 
.avoid a deadlock in this present war is to concentrate 
our efforts to organize without repression and remove 
from the face of the earth forever the pernicious 
doctrine of the "divine right of kings." This war has 



THE CREATIVE WORKMAN 



been called an industrial war — a war of machine 
power. If this is so, how long can Germany hold out 
when she is using only about 5 percent of her people 
in creative work? If we have the intelligence to 
organize our industries so that ten limes this percent- 
age are using their brains, we can set in motion such 
intensely powerful forces that the German machine 
will be absolutely unable to withstand them. Can this 
be done? I believe our experiences show that if 
granted their undeniable right to work intelligently, 
even a larger percentage than the 50 percent suggested 
above will do creative work. 

As an indication of the low percentage of creative 
power used by the Germans, 1 will cite two industries 
which are typical. Over two years ago one of the 
directors of a great transatlantic steamship corpora- 
tion told me that in twenty years to his own knowledge 
no basic invention in shipbuilding had come out of 
Germany. They have analyzed and refined what 
others have created but that is all. The same is true 
in the steel and iron industry, so I was informed a 
few days ago by the head of one of America's greatest 
steel corporations. 

We recognize in our work three fields of operation. 
The FIRST we may call the "field of nature," and 
such sciences as chemistry, physics and mechanics re- 
cord the operations in this field. All that these 
sciences do is to organize the observed facts in the 
physical world and by means of this organization re- 
cord the laws of the various physical elements which 
make up the raw materials. The laws of the raw ma- 
terials and the effects of the various manufacturing 
processes upon these raw materials must be recorded 
if we are properly to enlist into the service what we 
recognize as the SECOND great field of industrial 
operation, namely, "the will of man." 

The realm of so called "exact science," does not ex- 
tend to this field. It is only in proportion as we are able 
to give to man the greatest possible amount of knowl- 
edge of the first field and to create conditions where 
he can use this knowledge in constructive, imaginative 
work, that good results are obtained. It is begin- 
ning to be recognized today that we cannot drive men 
to do work against their will and obtain anything 
like the best operating conditions in our plants. The 
thing that a man does unwillingly he is not interested 
in and will not do well ; neither will he do good work 
if he is indifferent as to whether the work is well per- 
formed or not. The problem is how to produce a de- 
sire upon the part of the workman to do the work for 
its own sake. Our experience has shown that this can 
be done when conditions in the plant permit him to 
use the creative power of his intellect and thereby 
become the conscious director of the natural forces 
that he is using. It is not only necessary, however, to 
give this originating, choosing and adapting power of 
the intellect a chance to operate, but if we are to 
invoke it to the greatest degree, we must record — in- 
sofar as it is practical — each man's progress. The pro- 
gress record, as indicated by the score, is the thing 
which makes a game interesting and the pleasure we 
derive from a game comes largely from the conscious- 
ness that we are matching our own intelligence against 
the other man's intelligence. It is for this reason that 
in quality records we get, exactly as we do in games, a 
spirit of fair play and friendly competition, rather than 
the hard unfriendly feeling which comes when the rec- 
ords are mainly those of production or quantity only. 

The THIRD field has to do with the "spirit of 



unity" in the organization which men call esprit de 
corps. It is invoked largely through teaching each 
man his part in the organization by enabling him to 
become conscious of the effect of his acts upon every 
other part of the organization. It is not enough to 
teach a man his own work well and to create an en- 
vironment in which he can obtain the best results on 
his own job, but he should realize the effect of his 
work on every part of the organization and, therefore, 
his relationship to the whole. It is, of course, largely 
the function of the executive branch consciously to 
develop this spirit of unity, but this spirit must be 
developed if the best results are to be obtained. 

In Philadelphia a few days ago, I heard the head 
of one of our large shipbuilding corporations, when 
asked how he got such splendid results in his plant, 
reply that 80 percent of the results were due to the 
spirit of. the men. He added, however, that this spirit 
is largely emotional and therefore apt to change sud- 
denly. It is this very spirit of enthusiasm which, if 
properly directed, overcomes all obstacles, and the 
great problem in management is how to develop it 
rationally ami in constantly increasing proportion. 
What I hope to point out to you today is 
that if we are to perpetuate this spirit, it will 
be by showing how these strong emotions can 
be controlled by the mind through the use of 
the intellect and that if we intelligently build up in 
our plants man)' individual progress records, which 
not only inform each man of his own progress but also 
of the effect of his work on others working with him, 
we will have something tangible which men can recog- 
nize as the result of their unfolding spiritual conscious- 
ness, which is the mainspring of every one's activity. 
I do not mean by this that all of our activity should 
be purely intellectual, but that by the use of the in- 
tellect we must learn to control our emotions 
if the great power stored up in the emotional nature 
is to be used in constructive work for the advance- 
ment of the human race. Instead of poking fun at 
anything intellectual, why not get over this prejudice 
by recognizing the intellect as simply the instrument 
used by the mind ? What we all do is simply to select 
from our outer experiences (the field of our activity) 
what it is we wish to leave our impression upon : then 
by the use of our intelligence (intellect) we make up 
our minds what course to follow. This is no "high 
brow stunt." but just plain commonsense. 

It is necessary, if an industry is to make genuine 
progress, that a real science of the industry be built up. 
So far we have been very largely concerned with 
the art of making paper and not with the science. 
I am afraid that we have forgotten that we can only 
have a great art where the organized facts, which re- 
cord the science, are so complete and comprehensive 
that the individual who wishes to express this art 
can master the laws as recorded in the science. As it 
has been so well expressed by A. F. Sheldon, "Sci- 
ence is organized facts," and "Art is a science prac- 
tised," so that unless we can organize the facts under- 
lying the industry — the chemistry, physics and me- 
chanics of the process — it will be impossible for the 
men in the industry properly to express the art. The 
art, however, must be expressed not only through the 
emotions but also by the mind through the use of the 
intellect. 

Ts not the reason it has taken so long to learn a 
trade, in the great majority of cases, that there is no 
science of the trade where a man can study the natural 



"' 



,1 i8» 



THE CREATIVE WORKMAN 
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1 

















THE CREATIVE WORKMAN 



laws of the process. In most trades the workman 
must sec everything actually happen before he can 
tell what to do in an emergency and this of necessity 
lakes a long time, h is the length of time required for 
a man to develop himself into an all-round craftsman 
that is. perhaps, one of the main reasons why the 
employer lias resorted to those methods of extreme 
specialization which the workmen are certainly justi- 
fied in resenting. 

The trade school movement, as it is developing in 
this country, gives great promise of collecting the 
evils of the present system of education which in the 
past has taken so little account of the practical arts. 

With us the movement is the direct opposite of the 
Prussian system which fits the man into a predeterm- 
ined place in the industrial machine, for our system 
aims to help him find the kind of work he desires to 
do and is best fitted for. In the past the industrial 
system has been mainly used to exploit men and this 
misuse of the industrial organization has perhaps 
been largely responsible for the apparent failure of 
the democratic form of government. The great prob- 
lem is how to unite men without crushing them, and 
the answer to this problem will not come from the 
politicians and lawyers, but from those who are mas- 
ter-, of material forces and therefore know the law. 
We are to recognize at last that the real reason for 
the existence of industry is to form a field for the 
development of the human race. 

We should begin to look upon our industrial insti- 
tutions as primarily educational in nature: for educa- 
tion does not consist simply in the acquiring of facts 
by a process of accumulation and then making no use 
of them. Real education is not only proper nourish- 
ment of the mind, but proper use of the mind ; in other 
words, there must be repression as well as impres- 
sion. 

So it seems to me that if we look at our industrial 
institutions from this point of view we will see that 
the process of education is continuous throughout life, 
as indeed it should be, for it not only means equality 
of opportunity for all but knowledge of individual 
capacity which is more important still. The old idea 
that education ends with our graduation from school 
or college, has to be replaced by the saner conception 
that this preliminary training really only stimulates a 
desire for knowledge by furnishing us with a means 
for knowing how to acquire more knowledge. 

Some of our so-called learned men exhibit the least 
amount of intelligence and therefore in reality have 
the poorest education. A man does not have to 
be a college man or a high school graduate to be 
educated. In fact some of our greatest scientists 
have never been to college. They obtained their 
education in the school of life. Any man who 
Keeps an open mind, free from prejudice, and 
is intelligently inquiring into the reason why things 
happen as they do, is educating himself. He is study- 
ing nature's forces in action, and, if he intelligently 
iii(|uires why they act naturally as far as they do, he 
will learn how to create the special conditions to make 
them go further. It was because man observed things 
which floated in a natural way that he was able to 
discover the law that "anything which bulk for bulk 
was lighter than the water it displaced would float." 
He was then able to begin the organization of the facts 
which make up the science of shipbuilding. He now 
makes iron float by the use of the verv same law by 
which it sinks. We can see then how man, by the use 



of his intellect, creates a set of conditions which do 
not occur spontaneously in nature — nature serves him 
in proportion to his knowledge of her laws — an educa- 
tion is nothing more or less than obtaining a knowledge 
of natural law. 

We are wasting one of the greatest oportunities for 
the development of the human race when we so design 
our industries that a man ceases to consciously accumu- 
late experiences and simply becomes an automaton in 
the performance of his day's work. When we recog- 
nize the fact that the intelligence of an institution is but 
the sum of the intelligences of its individual members, 
we will see how absolutely essential it is that we make 
our main object the development of man power. If 
the men are right, the plant can not help being right. 

The idea that one man can arbitrarily dominate an 
organization and drive it as he wills is fast giving 
place to the saner conception that the manager must 
lead and not drive, and he is successful in proportion 
as he encourages those entrusted to his charge to work 
out things for themselves. He must learn to delegate 
authority and not try to hold it all in his own hands. 
Why not, therefore, recognize the fact that, if it is 
neces ary for the manager to throw responsibility 
upon his superintendents, department heads and fore- 
men, it is equally necessary to place responsibility 
upon the individual worker as well? Contrary to the 
commonly accepted impression, it has been our ex- 
perience that men crave responsibility. My own belief 
is that no stable form of society will be secured until 
our industries are so designed that workmen feel this 
responsibility. They can become responsible members 
of society only when they are responsible members 
of industry, for the obvious reason that the unthink- 
ing man is not a responsible man. 

My personal feeling is that the main reason why 
labor organizations have been formed is to prevent 
the exploitation of their members. Men do not want 
to be made into machines and the reason there is the 
constant demand for shorter hours and more pay is 
that men desire to get away from the deadening same- 
ness ol the work which is destructive to individuality. 
They feel that the trend of modern industry is 
more and more to make automatons of them and that 
this tendency is inevitable. Therefore, the only pos- 
sible chance for individual development of the men is 
outside of the mere routine of the workshop. They 
forget, however, that the work by which man lives 
must in the very nature of things furnish him with 
an opportunity for self-expression and that if the ele- 
ment of joy in work is lacking from his daily task, 
the man's life will be anything but full and complete 
(as it is destined to be). It is only when employers 
recognize this condition and earnestly strive to 
remedy it, that there will be any relief from the pres- 
ent industrial unrest. It might be proper to explain 
right here that I did not reach this conclusion by read- 
ing books on philosophy or political economy, but by 
actual contact with the men. I have had twenty-two 
years experience as both workman and employer and 
have talked with men individually and collectively 
through our labor organizations, and invariably when 
I mention making the work interesting and enjoyable 
the suggestion is welcomed with enthusiasm. 

While men must be fully paid for the services they 
render and must have sufficient time for recreation 
and leisure, it is nevertheless true that shorter hours 
and more pay by themselves will not solve our labor 
problems. Joy in work is equally essential, and this 



THE CREATIVE WORKMAN 



cannot be made real unless ihe workman has an oppor- 
tunity to learn to express consciously that which is 
unique and individual within himself. 

Before giving you actual illustrations I would like 
to explain the causes leading up to our decision to 
keep these records. In the first place, the publishers 
are very particular about the weight of the paper they 
use. A ream 24x36 — 500 sheets — should weigh ex- 
actly 32 pounds, as this is the standard weight for 
newspaper. If the paper runs lighter than this, it is 
apt to cause breaks in the pressroom and if it runs 
heavier, a publisher will not be able to get as many 
editions out of a ton and his paper cost will increase 
in proportion. It is also true that if the paper is over- 
dried on the machine it becomes brittle and, therefore, 
breaks easily in running over the printing press. In 
addition, the dryness makes it impossible for the sheet 
to lake a good finish and as a result the surface will 
"fuzz up" and fine particles will come off on the type 
of the printing presses and cause trouble, especially 
with the cuts, by filling up the fine corrugations or 
meshes. Therefore, the main problem is to make an 
absolutely uniform weight of paper, which has a good 
finish and at the same time elasticity without the ob- 
jectionable fuzziness. 

In the ordinary cours< of events, the publisher 
makes a vigorous complaint to the sales office who 
will pass the complaint along to the manager's office. 
We then take the matter up with the superintendent 
and he in turn passes the "kick" along to his assist- 
ant, who passes it along to the boss machinetender, 
until it finally reaches the machinetender or backten- 
der or any member of the crew- who is responsible. 
Things will go along fairly well for a time and then 
the process is repeated and each time we have to 
think of a new way of expressing the same old "kick." 
We made tip our minds, therefore, that the trouble 
was due largely to a lack of interest on the part of the 
men operating the machines in keeping the operating 
conditions where they should be to eliminate com- 
plaints, ami that this lack of interest came largely 
from their lack of knowledge as to what the conditions 
actually were; in other words, there were not enough 
samples taken of the sheet as it was operating on 
tile machine to inform the machine crew of what was 
occurring. The ordinary method is for the backten- 
der to take a sample off each reel, ami weigh it and 
let the machinetender know the results. The machine- 
tender then turns on or shuts off stock according to 
whether the sample is light or heavy. A sample from 
the front, middle and back of the sheet is taken occa- 
sionally, but as a rule not as often as it should be 
in order to get the most uniform results. Realizing 
that the problem was to produce a desire upon the part 
of the machine crew to get the results we were after. 
we put on to each shift, a man (one for every two ma- 
chines) whose duty it is to take a sample every time a 
reel is changed (once in every 30 or 40 minutes), from 
the front, middle and back of the sheet. These three 
samples are weighed and recorded as indicated on the 
form shown on Plate 1, reproduced herewith. 

These forms, which are kept in the machine room, 
are filled in by the "sample tester," who needs to be a 
good, bright, intelligent young fellow, quick and ac- 
curate with figures. While these men are instructed 
in the work by the research department, they are large- 
ly recruited from the machine crews and in our mills 
are members of the labor unions. There is no thought 
in the minds of our men that this is a "follow-up" sys 



Icm designed to enable Ihe management to find fault 
with the workman. They recognize it to be a system 
to help them get information which they would not 
have time to get themselves and which they must have 
in order to do their work more intelligently. As you 
will soon see, we are recording the lads which enable 
all of us to recognize the natural laws underlying the 
proi e - 

The first column marked "Time" shows when the 
sample was taken (at the change of the reel). The 
second column gives the continuous reel numbers for 
the shifts (the process is continuous — three 8-hour 
shifts in twenty- four hours). The next column was 
designed originally to "tie up" the reel number to the 
numbers of the rolls made from each reel in order to 
enable us to trace responsibility for complaints, but as 
the uniformity of results obtained later made this un- 
necessary, we abandoned its use and used this column 
to record the "Uniformity Record," which will be 
explained later. 

The next main column marked "Weight of Sam- 
ple" shows under the headings 1, 2 and 3 the weight 
of the samples of paper taken at the front, middle 
and back of the sheet, respectively (taken across the 
machine). On our medium-width machines at Espa- 
nola we planned to take four samples and on the wide 
machines at the "Soo" five samples instead of only 
three as on these narrow machines at Sturgeon Falls; 
hence the reason for the five columns. 

The first entries on the upper line are the exact 
weights (on a ream basis) of each of the three samples 
taken, and the first entry under the main column 
headed "Total Weight" is the average of the three 
samples. All of the oilier figures in the "Total 
Weight" column explain themselves. It is only neces- 
sary to remark that they are for the purpose of deter- 
mining the average weights and weights to date for 
the shift. 

These figures are plotted on the chart at the bottom 
of the sheet marked "Basis Weight," and thereby en- 
able the machine tender to visualize quickly what he 
is doing. The 32IL) weight is drawn in as a heavy line 
so a quick comparison with the ideal standard can be 
made. 

Before explaining the other figures on the chart, it 
is necessary to tell you the facts leading up to their 
inclusion in our records. When we first talked with 
our men about recording the "basis weight" in this 
way, they called our attention to the fact that the rec- 
ord of basis weight alone would not be sufficient; 
that the moisture in the sheet should also be recorded. 
Our research department then worked out the details 
of the plan, but the most valuable suggestions came 
from one of the international officers of the Paper 
Makers' Union. We built a small drying oven which 
was placed close to the work table where the sample 
cutter and scales are located, and as soon as a sample 
is weighed it is marked and immediately placed in 
this oven and dried to bone-dryness. (This takes 
about 10 minutes.) It is again weighed and the fig- 
ures entered in the "Weight of Sample" column just 
under its original weight. From a direct reading ta- 
ble, it is easy to compute the moisture test of each sam- 
ple which is entered in the "Percent of Moisture" 
column under "Roll." The average of the three is 
entered under "Reel." 'flic average to date for the 
shift is then computed exactly as in the case of the 
"Total Weight" column. 

This moisture test is then plotted on the bottom 



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PLATE II 
6 



THE CREATIVE WORKMAN 

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7 



THE CREATIVE WORKMAN 



chart sheet marked "Moisture Test." This, of course, 
proved to be a wonderful help to the back tender, 
whiise work it is to regulate the steam pressure on 
the drying cylinders. I'.efore this plan to give the 
exact moisture test was put into execution, the only 
way the backtender could tell anything about the 
sture content of the sheet was to "feel" it as it 
passed from the calendar stack to the reel. Of course, 
nu record of this "feel" could be made to enable the 
backtender In tell how well his work was being done, 
SO there was no particular reason why he should be 
interested in this part of his work. It is only the 
exceptional man who has imagination enough to cre- 
ate within himself a consciousness of his progress. 

Now this brings me to the "Weight Record" and 
"Moisture Record" columns. Our view is that every 
man is entitled to know how well he is doing his work 
and that it is one of the great moral obligations of 
the management to furnish him with a means of re- 
cording his progress. Aside from the satisfaction it 
gives the workman it is also a means of eliminating 
favoritism from the plant, for each man's record 
speaks for itself. The modern industrial plant with 
its specialization of functions, where each man does 
only a fractional part of an operation, no longer al- 
lows the operator to leave the impress of his person- 
ality upon the work itself. In the old days when the 
workman made the complete finished article, it liter- 
ally reflected his individuality, and being a creation 
of his own mind, he found joy in its production. The 
desire for self-expression, which is the most funda- 
mental instinct in life, had been gratified through the 
creation of the article produced. 

We must either accept the illogical premise that 
the combining of men into large industrial production 
units is contrary to the natural law of life, or we must 
squarely face the fact that this creative instinct, which 
the old order satisfied, must be permitted in the new. 
At first sight this may seem hopeless, but on further 
examination w r e find this not at all to be the case. On the 
contrary, because of the wonderful advance of mod- 
ern science which has increased the reasoning power 
of the human mind to a marvelous extent there is 
vastly more opportunity for the individual to do cre- 
ative work. We must, however, begin to study the 
problem with an earnest desire to solve it, for its solu- 
tion is the most pressing and vital question before the 
civilized world today. It is with the hope that these 
examples will help point a way toward the solution 
of this problem, that I am offering them to you for 
your consideration. 

My attention was called in a striking manner to 
the increasing interest taken in the problem by the 
public generally when in Washington a few days ago. 
While waiting for a trolley on Pennsylvania avenue 
a policeman, waiting for the same car, remarked to 
me that the Capitol was a lively place just now; to 
which I assented, saying it was perhaps a good thing 
lo wake up the old crowd a bit. This apparently met 
with his approval, for he admitted that the government 
employees really took little interest in their work. Upon 
asking him for his explanation of this, he said — and 
I am giving it as nearly as I can in his own words — 
"The reason is. that they don't have a chance to ex- 
press their individuality in the work, so it doesn't in- 
terest them." 

T mention this incident to call attention to the cir- 
cumstance that a great many men are thinking along 



these lines, and even the policeman is becoming a 
philosopher. 

Man never creates matter or force, but he does 
through his conscious mind create conditions for the 
expansion and control of these great primary universal 
energies, and this creative function has as its instru- 
ment the originating, choosing and adapting faculty of 
the human intellect. Suppress, or rather misdirect it 
— for it cannot be suppressed — as we are so unthink- 
ingly doing in the world of modern industry, and we 
are simply turning the "will of man" into forces of 
disintegration, which will eventually destroy society. 
The only remedy is so to reorganize our business and 
social systems that the creative power residing in the 
"will" can becoine constructive and therefore coopera- 
tive with the great natural laws of evolution. 

The trouble with the average employer is that he 
has been so engrossed in the task of creating an effi- 
cient organization to express his ozvn individuality that 
he has entirely overlooked the fact that in the creation 
of this thing he has forgotten to extend the same 
privilege to his employees. If he only stops to think 
of it he will recognize at once that he cannot hope to 
get the initiative of the workman except by giving 
him a similar privilege of seeing his own creations 
grow, either by leaving the impress of his personality 
upon the article produced or upon the progress record 
of his work. 

The workman has combined against the employer 
in order to obtain the freedom which he sees steadily 
being taken away from him, as industry tends more 
and more to make automatons of men ; and the unfor- 
tunate part of it all is that he has accepted in all too 
many cases the premise that this tendency is logical 
and, therefore, inevitable. 

The ideal of some labor leaders inclining toward the 
socialistic philosophy is that man should be able to pro- 
duce in a few hours each day all he needs to support 
himself and his family, and will then have the rest of 
the day to do as he pleases. 

This idea has been strengthened undoubtedly by 
the workmen seeing men who apparently do little or 
no productive work, profit out of all proportion to 
their efforts. 1 >oes the remedy not lie in, first, correct- 
ing the laws which create special privilege; and, 
second, in making our economic teaching conform to 
the universal law of compensation? It can be made 
plain to all that a man cannot safely consume more 
than he produces, for the law of the conservation of 
energy is as exact in its operation in the field of 
economics as it is in physics. I see no reason why 
these basic facts of economy cannot be taught by 
analog}' to every one. When they are understood, 
men will concentrate their organized efforts upon 
creating an environment which will make work a 
joyous thing and stop trying to get away from it 
as so many are now doing. The question of pro- 
ducing what we need for the full enjoyment of 
life will then be a long way toward being solved. For 
we will then make the work by means of which we 
earn our livelihood, a source of joy and inspiration. 
The illustrations will. I hope, give you a hint of how 
this can be accomplished, even as industry in the main 
is today constituted. 

Does not the reason that the average employer is 
opposed to labor unions lie in the fact that he is afraid 
that the restrictions which he thinks the unions seek 
lo impose will take away his own opportunity for self- 
expression by preventing him from working out his 
S 



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9 



THE CREATIVE WORKMAK 



individual problems in his own way? Furthermore, 

if the unions can demonstrate, as they have in our 
plants, that this fear is unfounded, but that on the 
contrary their united cooperative effort helps to de- 
velop esprit de corps, would not this antagonism on 
the part of the employer disappear? 

Now let us examine further the sheet which gives 
tiiese progress records. The standard of weight be- 
ing 321b, we mark this 100, using the same basis of 
marking as is used in any other educational institu- 
tion, ill) heavy and lib light being marked 80. 

As with the "Total Weight" we naturally must 
carry an average to date on this record. How this is 
done, can be readily understood from the entries and 
needs no explanation. The same method is used for 
marking the ".Moisture Records," except that in this 
case we mark 8 percent moisture content 100 and 1 
percent more or less 80, the average to date for the 
shift being cumulative also. 

Finally this figure is entered up under "Day" in 
the progress record attached to the graphical charts. 
This, together with the cumulative weight record, 
forms the record for the day (the two being aver- 
aged). These sheets are checked up by the research 
department to make sure that they are free from errors, 
as the men have no confidence in records they feel 
are not accurate. The chart on the bottom of the 
sheet is then torn off and the three for each machine 
(one for each shift), are posted on a bulletin board 
in the machine room. The record having the best 
period average appears first, as indicated on the ac- 
companying charts. (See Flates II, III and IV.) 

The period is four weeks and the average to date 
begins all over again at the end of each four weeks' 
period. The reason for indicating the standing of the 
men i>n a period average rather than the day's aver 
age is that it tends toward greater continuity of ef- 
fort, which is a source of much greater satisfaction 
to the workman. It is the steady progress that really 
counts and not the spasmodic, spectacular high record 
for any one day. The record, to give joy to the 
ivorker, must reflect the constant, steady inner urge 
which indicates flic degree of his mastery of the forces 
lie controls in the day's :eork. 

The improvement in the records from < )ctober 16 
(made about a week after the recording commenced) 
to November 27 is very noticeable. The records of 
May 10, however, show- how completely the men be- 
came the masters of the machine. From the first three 
records (of ( (ctober 16) it is evident that the machine 
was more mi less controlling the nun win. really 
formed a part of it. In the last three records ( of May 
01). however, the machine was completely under con- 
trol and was literally an instrument for expressing 
tin- degree of the man's mastery of the science and art 
"i making paper. The difference is enormous! 

The three sets of records of the same machines, 
and machine crews, on three different dates show the 
actual results obtained, and I would like to call your 
attention to the last three of .May 10. (See Plate IV I. 
You "ill note that while at first there was quite a 
ij difference between the men, that on May 10 
tin- records were 89.2, 88.9 and 88.0 respectively. 
This shows very clearly that the spirit of friendly ri- 
valry and competition will increase rather than dimin- 
ish, if only the progress records are made interest- 
1 do reflect the quality of the work. The old 
idea thai competition in e of making money 

is the mainspring of every man's activity, is passing 
"ill, lor we are realizing that the possessive instinct 



which economists over emphasized in the past is giv- 
ing place to the creative instinct. Competition from 
the purely moneymaking sense is not the life of trade, 
but rather the reverse. 

Me do not pay a man more money for a good rec- 
ord but pay the prevailing union scale for all posi- 
tions in our plants. These are adjusted each spring 
by joint conferences with our men. In this way we 
keep a proper wage balance between the different 
classes of work in proportion to the skill required 
and as a consequence avoid all the innumerable dif- 
ficulties which confront the piece work system, task 
and bonus plan and all other direct payment methods. 
It is often argued that it is not right to pay a good 
man the same rate as a poor man and to this I ab- 
solutely agree, but the fact is that when these progress 
records are furnished to men, all men in a certain 
operating class finally come to be practically equal in 
performance and the differences will be only between 
the amount of skill required in each different class of 
work and in these classes there is a difference in com- 
pensation. Proof of this statement is brought out by 
the three records of May 10; but for those who do 
not wish to take so few examples as conclusive, 1 
would like to say that it has been my experience that 
invariably the competition is keen enough on all qual- 
ity records to bring nearly all men, (who have been at 
the work a sufficient length of time to become ex- 
pert) practically to the same degree of proficiency. 

Every organization should encourage its employees 
to progress from one class to another, so as to have 
as many "all-round" men in its employ as possible, 
and it has been our experience that you can practical- 
ly always convince a man who asks for more than 
his particular job is worth, that the way to get more 
pay is so to master his own job that he can be pro 
moted to a higher class. Men have confidence in a 
company where promotion from the ranks is the rule. 

Perhaps some principle of paying men an increase 
of a certain amount per hour for each month's con 
tinuous service can be worked out between certain 
maximum and minimum rates. A man would then 
start in at a fixed minimum per hour and advance au- 
tomatically to a maximum rate representing the value 
of his particular occupation as decided upon in joint 
conference between the employer and employee. This 
principle is not new in unionism, and is even now op- 
erative in some trades. 

You will notice that on the record of Mav 10 there 
appears a "uniformity record" which was not on the 
records of ( Ictober 10 ami November 27 (although 
for the sake of explaining its method of computation 
it was shown on the large record sheet). This was 
added because the machine tenders themselves wanted 
us to find some way of measuring how near they came 
to having the weight across the sheet uniform. The 
third column marked "Uniformity Record" (Plate 1) 
previously referred to, shows how this record is kept. 
It will be noticed that the three weights are 30.75, 29. 
and 28.75 lne front, middle and back of the sheet, 
respectively. In obtaining this uniformity record, we 
take the middle weight as the normal, to which the 
other two are referred, and for each % lb from the 
normal (not average) we take off 10 points. In this 
ease 29 happens to be normal, therefore. 
30 
90 



-'8-75 



Total. . 120 
Average 60 



THE CREATIVE WORKMAN 



You will notice we have kept a number of other 
lines in the progress record attached to the charts. 
We did this realizing we would be sure to have re- 
quests from our men for other factors which they 
would like recorded, and while we have not had time 
to work them out as yet, we have already had a 
number of suggestions. We find that the greater 
number of factors or laws that we record, the greater 



and that we should find some way of recording the 

thickness at these points. We found that to do this 

we had to increase the amount of agit; n in the pulp 

storage tanks, and as a result are making some radical 
improvements which will tend to produce greater uni- 
formity throughout the entire process. Right here it 
might be well to call attention to the fact that our 
experience has been that men do not have to be stimu 



Form M-l. 



BACK TENDERS MOISTURE RECOR- 

n*t.« A/ 01/ .30, IS/7 





No. \ Machine. 




1 . ' Us chins . 


Name 


Moisture 


Progre&e. 
Record. 


Name 


Moisture Progress 
Record. 




Day 




Day 




Da; v 




■ 




{JoaN/s 


78 


7.7 


34.1 


94,a 


FRENCH 


77 


7.3 


QZ7 


33.1 


M c Clelland 


8.6 


78 


szz 


83.8 


Andrews 


74 


7& 


81B 


Sag 


BEAunoi N 


W.8 


7.S 


8d.S 


33.3 


T^LLON 


74 


7.2 


m? 


m<s 



is the interest in the work, because it brings to bear 
upon the problem a greater amount of thought. 

The "basis weight" and "moisture test" records had 
only been operating a short time when the machine- 
lenders called our attention to the fact that they could 
get belter results if the stock thickness or density 
furnished them by the beater room was more uniform. 



Iated to make suggestions by offering prizes. They are 
glad to suggest improvements, for in this way they are 
helping to create conditions in the plant which help 
them to get better results (the results being indicated 
by their progress records). Then, too, they are sure 
to receive recognition for their suggestions, for the 
foreman knows our judgment of his ability depends 



iorm M-l. 



BACK TENDERS MOISTURE RECORD 
Date 



May /O. /9/& 



No. 1 Machine. 


No. 2 Ma 


Name 


Mo i s 4 u re 


Progress . 
Record. 


Name 


Mo i ". 1 ur f rorrresf. 
Record 




Day 


\ riod 


Day 


Period 










Fo/?T//A/£ 


8.0 


8.0 


373 


35.6 


<J04NI$ 


SO 


A? 


875 


SZl 


MXlelland 


8.1 


7-8 


92.7\8ZO 


Andrews 


78 


78 


3S0 


&I& 


Marchildon 


3.0 


7-8 


d4.4\80.2 


French 


8.0 


78 


956 


SI. 8 



I'hcv asked us to find some way to measure the thick- 
l he stock so that the beater engineer could do 
his work more intelligently. As a result of this sug- 
gestion and after discussing the matter with the beater 
engineer, our research department has tackled the 
problem of measuring this stock thickness and it is 
now practically solved. The beater engineer imme- 
diately suggested to us that the variation in the stock 
thickness which was furnished him by the sulphite 
pulp mill and groundwood pulp mill was not uniform, 



largely upon how he succeeds in getting his men to 
use their brains. He naturally hastens to give credit 
for all suggestions made. Of course, it goes without 
saying that this greater uniformity is bound to result 
not only in a better quality of paper, but in in< 
output as well; in fact our Sturgeon Falls mill, with 
out making any changes in the speed of the paper 
machines, has already increased it- output over 5 
as a consequence of more uniform operating 
conditions. 



THE CREATIVE WORKM.IX 



We have further made the discovery that what we 
call the slowness or freeness of the stock has quite a 
■ mi the quality of the paper as it comes off the 
paper machines, and as a result we adopted a method 
which would record this slowness and freeness. 
By free .stuck I mean stuck that the water leaves ra- 
pidly and by slow stuck a slock which the water leaves 
slowly. We found incidentally that this slowness and 
freeness is one of the best indexes of the quality of 
the groundwood pulp, and we are now working upon 
a series of factors which will record the operations 
ut the grinders upon which the wood blocks are re- 
duced to pulp. This work has always been one of the 
most uninteresting and monotonous jobs in the plant, 
but from the small amount of work we have already 
been able to do, we find increasing interest upon the 
part of the worker, and I feel free to prophesy that 
when these several factors have been recorded, we will 
convert this into one of the most interesting jobs in 
the plant. I base this prophecy on my previous ex- 
perience at the Burgess Sulphite Fiber Company 
where we recorded hundreds of operations. These 
records we found to be grouped under three general 
classes: quantity records, quality records and economy 
(or cost) records. Quality records (which occupy 
the middle position), are, perhaps, of the greatest im- 
portance for they bring the individual's intelligence 
(brain power) to bear upon the problem and as a 
consequence by removing the obstacles to uniformity 
of quality, remove at the same time the obstructions 
to increased output. The creative power of the 
human mind is, however, not content simply to pro- 
duce the best quality under existing conditions of 
plant operation. So the desire to create new condi- 
tions for the more highly specialized working out of 
the natural laws of the process, demands expression 
and this expression at once takes the form of sugges- 
tions for improvements in mechanical devices. 

This desire contains within it the germ of economic 
thought which will unfold and express itself eventu- 
ally in a request for cost records, and the organization 
that neglects its opportunity to satisfy this desire is 
overlooking one of the great avenues leading toward 
intelligent productive effort. 

I '.(cause of the interrelation of Quality, Quantity 
and Economy records, any complete record of indivi- 
dual progress must, of course, take them all into ac- 
count. However, as this is not always practical we 
have at least one of three ways of measuring progress 
always open to us. 

As further illustrating the necessity for giving in- 
dividual records to the men, we discovered that the 
Lacktenders who sometimes work on other shifts than 
their regular ones lost interest in their records to a cer- 
tain extent when on a different shift and, therefore, a 
request came to keep the backtenders' records sepa- 
rately, so that no matter what machinetender he hap- 
pened lo be working for, Ins record would follow him. 
This was dune, and the two records of Xovember 30 
and May io reproduced herewith, show clearly not 
only the gains made but the increasing competition 
for a good record. I would like to say 'hat other fac- 
tors under control of the backtenders have been al- 
ready suggested for recording, and these we are plan- 
ing to work upon as soon as our Research Depart- 
ment has had time to develop a plan. 

We had an interesting experience with one of our 
backtenders which illustrates how men appreciate 
these progress records. At Sturgeon Falls we have 



two small 120 in. machines. At Sault Ste. Marie our 
narrowest machine is 104 in. and the widest 198 in. 
Whenever we have openings on these wide machines, 
which pay more money for backtenders, we like to 
advance our own men. One of our men went from 
Sturgeon Kails to the "Soo." His machinetender, 
who told me the story, said he noticed this man ran 
his paper much more uniformly than any backtender 
he had ever had as regards moisture test. Upon in- 
quiring where he had learned to run paper so uniform- 
ly, he explained that it was at Sturgeon Falls, where 
they had a "scheme" for letting backtenders know 
just what the moisture was every time a reel was 
changed. He said the scheme was "great" and he 
hoped they would start this same thing at the "Soo." 

I referred to the fact that mistakes in records cause 
a lack of confidence. It may interest you to know 
how we overcame this trouble by giving "accuracy" 
records to the "sample tester." This was done by hav- 
ing the Research Department check over the number 
of mistakes made each day in the "reel record" sheets. 
A perfect score with no mistakes we call 100; 2j4 
points were taken off for every mistake. An average 
of eight or ten mistakes a day was a common occur- 
rence and almost immediately this changed so that 
today a mistake is decidedly the exception rather than 
the rule. 

At the Burgess plant (and we are now develop- 
ing the same system at our Canadian mills), the same 
principle of developing the individuality of each man 
was extended right up to the department heads, who 
have complete records including cost sheets of the 
operations of their departments. We also developed 
a system of reports for the maintenance and construc- 
tion crews by giving the men records showing the cost 
of jobs that they were working on, together with de- 
tailed figures of the cost of all the materials they 
were using. The saving, because of the creative power 
released, through the aid of these records, was enor- 
mous, and the fact that our men did this for us with- 
out being paid on a piece-work system, or a task or 
bonus plan, demonstrates, it seems to me, conclusive- 
ly that men instinctively desire to do the right thing, 
and do not have to be bribed (as a workman once ex- 
pressed it to me) to do good work. It is unnat- 
ural for men to work in a negative and de- 
structive manner and the fact that so much of this 
sort of work is done is not so much a reflection on the 
individual workman as it is upon the manager who 
has failed to create an environment in which a man 
can work intelligently. 

Is it not, perhaps, unfair to the workman to hold the 
"almighty dollar" constantly before him and thereby 
stimulate his selfish instincts? Our experience at least 
has demonstrated that it is better to reward merit by 
promotion and to pay a regular hourly rate of 
wages; then by means of progress records to help him 
measure the result of his efforts in such a manner 
that he is consciously increasing his knowledge of the 
work. There will be no lack of cooperation in the 
plant where these principles are used, for goodwill 
which is based on knowdedge will build up an esprit 
de corps, which is not a purely emotional thing that 
may disappear "over night." It is rather a spirit which 
recognizes consciously the universality of law and the 
stability of things generally. 

Of course, such vital questions as steadiness of em- 
ployment, cost of living, and justice in division of 



THE CREATIVE WORKMAN 



profits— the public included -must 1"-' solved. The 
solution, however, requires democratic cooperation 
between employer and employee and the elimination 
therefore of every form of paternalism. The work- 
man must have a chance to express his individuality, 
and the degree of conscious self-expression which he 
can attain is in direct proportion to the ability of the 
organization to measure, for his benefit, the impress of 
his personality upon it. The most democratic indus- 
trial plant, therefore, is the one which permits the ful- 
lesi amount of individual freedom to each member, 
irrespective of his position and, at the same time, is 
so sensitively adjusted that it reflects immediately the 
effect of his actions. If his actions result in injury 
lo others he will see that, as a part of the whole, he 
himself must also suiter. An organization of this 
kind can never be used by the employer to exploit the 
employee, for it will be continually demonstrating to 
both that the success of any one part of the organiza- 
tion is absolutely dependent upon that of every other 
part, and therefore upon the success of the whole. 

In conclusion I would like to call your attention to 
the fact that the great life movement (which brought 
industry into existence) is not to be recognized in its 
stationary aspect, i.e., as it is crystallized into the 
forms of things which we can possess, but in its work- 



ing, moving aspect that constantly lends toward a 
fuller, and more complete expression of life. To be 
conscious, however, this expression must at the same 
Lime be individual, so in its working through human- 
ity it can only come to its highest stale of develop- 
ment through self-expression, i.e., by release of in- 
dividualized creative power. This is the reason why, 
as our knowledge of the great forces of nature in- 
creases, we desire more and more to express this 
knowledge in the creation of conditions (or particu- 
lar situations) in which we can observe these forces 
in action, and especially where this action records the 
degree of our mastery of the law. 

As we come into a consciousness of the unity of all 
life, and see the expression of this unity in the uni- 
versality of the laws of nature, we know that freedom 
to express this knowledge in creative work is the only 
real freedom. 

Have we not a right then, to assume that the pos- 
sessive instinct, which has caused so much unhappi- 
iiess in tin past, is influencing our lives less and less 
each day. and that the creative, which is the impulse 
back of all healthy growth, is coming to lie more 
and more the quickening influence, not only in the 
lives of our leaders, but also in the lives of the work- 
men as well ? 




13 



Discussion of Mr. Wolfs Address 



Afternoon Sitting 

Thursday, May 16, 1918 
Henry P. Carruth, President, in the Chair. 
\tur the meeting was opened, the secretary announced a 

paper by Otto Kress and George C. McNaughton on The 
: \ arying Humidities on the Strength of Fiber Board 
Plies," which he recommended to be read 
by title, unless there was time later 111 the afternoon Pn 
dent Carruth then introduced Robert B. Wolf who addressed 
Hi, meeting on "Results Obtained 111 Recording of Operations 
r Machines," his remarks being illustrated by stere- 
opticon views of progress records, charts, curves, etc. The 
revised text of Mr. Wolf's address is published in this issue 
as a separate article. The discussion which followed the ex- 
hibition of slides is reported below, as follows: 

Mr. Fletcher— You raised a point there where you called 
attention to the fact that the men were far apart, at the he- 
ginning and close together at the end. That struck me as 
very interesting. Naturally the men were working for a 
good record. Now, as a man goes off a shift, he usually does 
not inform the man that follows him of the condition of the 
machine. All of us who handle machines know that there 
is quite a variation; that it takes a few minutes for you to 
pick up information regarding the condition of the stock. 
Now, if the men could realize the service they might render 
by informing each other, they would keep themselves in closer 
touch with the work, and if this was done on all three shifts 
it would improve operating conditions. Unfortunately this 
friendly spirit does not ordinarily exist. How do you find 
it where you keep these records? 

Mr. Wolf— We found, Mr. Fletcher, that when we 1 hangi d 
our records from a quantity to a quality basis that we always 
got a friendly spirit of rivalry instead of an unfriendly one. 
It is not exactly what you would call a "sporting spirit," but 
the kind of spirit which enters into a game which requires 
brain power. The competition which results has in it most 
decidedly the element of fair play, which is usually lacking 
where the competition is on the basis of physical production 
only. 

Tom Harvey — How often do you take the samples for rec- 
ords of weight and moisture? 

Mr. Wolf — They are taken every time a reel changes; ilia! 
is about every thirty-five minutes. 

Mr Harvey — Through the entire twenty-four hours? 
Mr Wolf — Yes; we have a man on each shift foi ever} 
two paper machines. As mentioned previously, these men 
are members of the labor organizations; naturally there is 
no feeling that we have some sort of a "follow-up" system 
but that the entire function of the records is to give more 
information to the machine crews in order to enable them 
to < 1 o their work to better advantage. 

(A member made inquiry at this point regarding the con- 
trol of the moisture test, but the exact phraseology of his 
query could not be made out by the stenographer.) 

Mr. Wolf — Personally, I do not approve of automatic reg 
illation of -lock going to the paper machines unless it saves 
men. I think it is much better to give the man a chance to 
control the machine than to have it automatically controlled 
lor him. 
A Member — I mean the drying 1 nd 

Mi; Wolf — It seems to me it is much better if the back- 
tender regulates the drying of paper by hand. Our experi- 
ence is it we furnish the machine with uniform stock that 
little difficulty about proper regulation of the 
drying; in other words, the changes are so gradual and slight 
that they can 1"' easily controlled. And here again, Why 
iIm backtender of the privilege of controlling his 
. iion personally? 

iiii-.R — I understood you to say you regulate the dens- 
Do vim do that automatically? 
VfR Woli We have not started this stock thickness regn- 
al are installing two Trimby regulators for regulat- 
ing the uniformity of the stock 111 the storage tanks, from 
il is pumped to the beaters. 
Mi; Harvey — Your process is a comparatively simple one. 
re running with just one stuff pump and one -tuff box 



board we have as many as seven machines combined in one, 
there are seven chests, seven stuff pumps and seven stutf 
boxes to regulate. It is a well known fact, the thinner the 
paper we are making, the faster the machine is running, the 
less variation you will have in weights. Our machines in- 
stead of running paper at 24x36 — 30ft). or for example four 
one-thousandths thick and running 600 ft. a minute run prob- 
ably 100 ft. a minute on paper which gauges .030 thrk, so we 
have considerable more trouble in keeping our weights cor- 
rect than you have on a news machine or book machine and 
this variation of weight is probably caused by the variation 
of the density in the stock. Is it possible to regulate the 
density of that stock automatically? 

Mr. Wolf — Yes, absolutely. Mr. Rhodes of the Interna- 
tional Paper Company, who is here, I believe has had some 
experience with this regulator. Would you kindly tell us 
about it, Mr. Rhodes? 

Mr. Rhodes — I don't see why the regulator that Mr. Wolf 
is speaking of wouldn't operate the same for board machines. 
Do you use a weight regulator on the machine? 

Mr. Wolf — No, we have not used weight regulators on our 
machines. 

Mr. Harvey' — We furnish them three or four different 
kinds of stock. 

Mr. Wolf — One man runs all kinds? 
Mr. Harvey — Yes. 

Mr. Wolf — Why not have a different standard to work to 
for each order, calling the normal weight or the weight de- 
sired 100, varying the moisture test in accordance with re- 
quirements; for instance, mil standard on hanging paper 
instead of being 8 percent moisture is 6 percent. 

Mr Harvey — What I am getting at, the variation of the 
weight and thickness of the paper, depends more on the 
beater man than it does on the machine man, and if we can 
to regulate the weight on your machines. In making box 
get awaj from that variation of the thickness of the stock 
and variation of beating conditions we can practically elimin- 
ate all our trouble as regards variation in weight. 

Mr. Wolf — There are instruments on the market to record 
the beating operation. I believe one invented by the Eastern 
Manufacturing Company and the other by Mr. Green, form- 
erly of S. 1 ). Warren & Company. 

A Member — We had great difficulty in getting the stock to 
a proper density in order to measure it out in the right pro- 
portion. 

Mr. Wolf — I understand the Eastern Manufacturing Com- 
pany solved this problem by putting all of their halfstuff in 
centrifugal machines which brought it to a constant density. 

A Member — That is what we are doing now. We then 
have a record which enables us to get correct results We 
used a centrifugal pump to work up the stock; that didn't 
work very well. The regulation of the beater is the proper 
thing. 

Mr Wolf — We have so far not bail occasion to record 
this operation along the lines you mention. 

A Member — How about one man leaving his shift without 
leaving complete information as to what has happened for 
his running mate? Will these records help you in this? 

Mr Wolf — They do. We find when these quality records 
are posted that men are always careful to leave full informa- 
tion for those who follow them on the machines. It may in- 
terest you to know that these records are all finally plotted 
together on a big record sheet which enables the shift fore- 
men to compare the results of their shifts. We also keep 
individual records of each machine which enables 11s to cor- 
rect mechanical difficulties when the records show' that these 
exist. The whole idea of this grouping of individual records 
i-. to get shift and department records which will reflect the 
individual progress of the group as well. Our progress rec- 
ords as a whole have increased from the original figure of 
about 70 to something over 00. All these records are avail- 
Mile to any man in the organization. 

Mr Carruth — I would like to inquire if you have 
attempted to record operations where the records are 
based on appearances and decided by the personal 
judgment of the "sample tester." For instance, take the 
I 11 stion'of finisb or formation. This may vary so much as 



[14] 



Id completely ruin ;i sheet and yet so far as [ know there has 
not yet been developed a means of measuring it. 

Me. Wolf- -We have not worked on this problem but are 
planning to do so, as it is an important factor. I believe, 
however, that it will be solv< as sufficient study has 

been put upon it. Whenever records are kept, however, it 
should I"' borne in mind that thee should be based upon 
something exact and not mere personal opinion; otherwise, 
the men will not have any faith in them. 

Mi; Obermanns I understand that the record of the ma- 
i hinetender is based or determined by his paper weight and 
the moisture. How do you ascertain the moisture content? 
It necessarily must be a very hue instrument to determine 
ai :urately the moisture content of a sheet of paper. 

Mr, Wolf — In order to get more accurate results of the 
weights, we were obliged to design a much more delicate scale 
than was on the market. The scale we are using is very 
far superior to the German quadrant scale and was designed 
by Dr. Thwing of the Thwing Instrument Company, Phila- 
delphia. 

A Member — How long does it take to make the moisture 
test ? 

Mr. Wolf — Fifteen minutes. It really only takes ten to 
dry out, but we allow fifteen to be safe. Perhaps Mr. Ship- 
man will explain the proceedings in detail. 

Mr. Shipman — We at first attempted to use a scale where 
a balance is effected l,\ moving a small rider back and forth 
on a beam. We found that the sensitiveness of such a scale 
ufficient for our purposes inasmuch as. no matter how 
conscientious the operator, weights varying by as much as 
half a pound could he obtained on the sample of paper. 

We then decided tli.it we should have some sort of direct 
reading scale. The so called quadrant scale i. not sensitive 
enough to allow lor moisture determinations By this, I mean 
we decided in order to save time in the manipulation to use 
the wet and dry basis weights for calculating the percentage of 
in the papi r. \ simple calculation will show that 
if either your wet or dry basis weights are in error by as 
much as half a pound that your moisture determination will 
be in error by over I percent. Inasmuch as your total range 
of moisture content is only from around 6.5 percent to around 
o percent an error of I percent is not allowable. 

It was necessary therefore to design and build an entirely 
new type of direct reading scale whose readings should be 
sensitive to one-tenth pound basis weight. 

We have five of these scales in constant daily operation and 
,! e giving very good satisfaction, being both fast and 

accurate. 

With regard to the drying of the samples of paper for 
moisture determination, (he problem was to be able to dry 
-ix sheets of newsprint 24x36 inches and do it in fifteen 
minutes since the reels were finished in about that time on 
iln paper machines. The oven is an ordinary galvanized iron 
box, heated with two layers of J4 inch steam coil to a temp- 
erature around 240° Fahr. The air in the machine room be- 
damp to full} dry the samples, we built a small brick 
chamber, set the oven on top of it and ran a pipe from the 
bottom of the chamber to the finishing room taking our air 
through this pipe In order to make sure that our air was 
sufficiently dry to carry off the moisture quickly we built a 
shallow box, twelve feet long, divided into two compartments 
one over the other, filling each compartment with quicklime. 
The air for drying the samples is drawn through both these 



compartments and dried by contact with the lime. It is then 
blown 1>\ a small 2 inch direct connected blower to the brick 
chamber underneath the oven. In this w.,\ ;i slight air pres 
iii' 1 always maintained on the 11 n.. damp air 

from the machine room can enter tin: oven through the 
iround the doors. An outlet 011 the brick chambci 
allows for readings with wet and dr> bulb thermometers to 
indicate when the quick lime has been spent in its absorbing 

The above air-drying apparatus was installed at only one 
of the plants and Usis are being made with it to determine 
whether it is necessary to employ such an apparatus. 'Iln 
pi linl is in 'l 3 et fully determined. 

(At this point a slide showing tin - ab was thrown on the 
screen.) 

Mr. Klund— With a system of this kind based on the rec- 
thi individual machines, do you find that an\ jealousy 
' .1 -. between lenders of machines that may be 1 ■ I ■ bj side? 
In our own mill the lenders of adjoining machine are < \ 
pi ep ,1 to ,i^-:st each othi r in case of trouble. 

Mr. Wolf I can onlj givi you the results of our ai 
pern 111 e \\ 1 nevei have any of these jealousies which cause 
hard feelings when the records are on a quality basis. I be- 
lieve, as I have said before, thai quality stimulates the intel- 
lect, whereas quantity does the physical or lower animal na- 
ture. A man instinctively begin in realize that only as he 
cooperates with his fellow man can he have the greatest pos- 
sible amount ol freedom for In-, individual development. 
This conception comes to him through the use of his intel- 
lect and for this very reason the quality records which stim 
ulate the intellectual faculties are bound to produce in him 
.1 larger social eon-. him less selfish 

and more anxious to coopi 1 1 r way for the bene- 

fit of the whole. When the man in the groundwood mill be- 
comes conscious of the troubb be is 1 ausing a man in the 
beater room if be doesn't run his stock uniformly, he nat- 
urally is more careful, especiallj ii the 'are that he exerciser- 
is being recorded for him in the progress record. This is 
also true of the man in the heater room when he becomes 
conscious of th, effect of his work upon the machinetender. 
A spirit of unfriendly rivalry simph cannot exist in a plant 
where the "will of man'' is operating in this eon scion- manner. 

(This brought the discussion of Mr Wolf's paper to a 
close, and after making a Fi ling reg- 

istering, etc., Chairman Carruth called upon George F. Wil- 
liamson to present his paper on "Modern Meth ids in a Pa 
per Mill Boiler Plant." 

DISCUSSION of BOILER PLAN! METHODS 



The following discussion of Mr 
ensued : 

(The text of Mr. Williams,,, 
per for May 22, 1918.) 

Mi; Kkfss — The gentleman win, u.i to open the di 
asked me to take his place. Tie re is hardl} anything that I 
can add, and I would like to sa\ dial Mr. Williamson's paper 
is now open for discussion. 

J. II. Wright— In getting youi records of CO 
you employ a recorder? 

Mr. Williamson — We do not 
an old style recorder, which became a nuisance. 
now an ordinary baud sampler and collector, and we have 
pipes running from each boiler uptake to our control board 



Williams, ,11's paper, then 
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15 



Copyright, 1918, by Paper, Inc., New York 



[Reprinted from Paper, July -'4, 1918, issue) 



The Yellowing of Paper 

A Study of the Causes or Principal Factors Producing the Yellowing of Paper 

By ALFRED B. HITCHINS, Ph.D., F.C.S., F.R.M.S. 




NUMBER of experiments have been 
carried out to determine the causes or 
principal factors bringing about the 
yellowing of paper. In this work 
handmade sheets were used, made 
from the finest picked white rags, and 
the chemicals used were all of c. p. 
quality, tested carefully for impuri- 
ties and where necessary further pur- 
ified. Particular care was also taken in the bleaching 
and washing of the stock, as it was realized that this 
in itself might have an influence on the yellowing of 
papers. The sheets were subjected to three test condi- 
tions. 

Test No. 1 — Exposure to arc light for one hour to 
100 hours. Samples withdrawn at 10-hour intervals. 

Test No. 2 — Exposure to moist heat, 90 Cent, in 
a constant temperature oven in total darkness for 1 
to 100 hours. Samples withdrawn every 10 hours. 

Test No. 3 — Exposure to dry heat 90 ° Cent., heated 
in a constant temperature oven in total darkness from 
1 to 100 hours. Samples withdrawn every 10 hours. 

It was thought desirable that as much as possible, 
only one side of the sheet should be acted upon, so 
the samples intended for exposure to light were sealed 
down to an opaque backing, and the sheets intended 
for exposure to heat were sealed down to thin as- 
bestos boards. No filler was used for any of the ex- 
perimental sheets. In this investigation the yellowing 
of paper due to the fading of dyes or the presence of 
woodpulp is not considered, all the sheets having been 
made without any dye. 

For the charts used to illustrate the data obtained, 
the following nomenclature has been adopted : The 
ordinates headed Y° are degrees of yellowing. The 
abscissae represent hours of exposure. The lettering 
of the curves — A, B and C correspond to tests Nos. 
1, 2 and 3 — vie: light, moist heat and dry heat. The 
degrees of yellowing were measured photometrically 
by means of a calibrated yellow wedge. 

The sheets for experiment No. 1 were made with- 
out size and after subjection to the test conditions 
showed practically no yellowing. 

The sheets for No. 2 were prepared with three dif- 
ferent amounts of rosin — 2]/ 2 percent, 5 percent and 
10 percent. The result of the exposure to the test 
conditions is illustrated in Fig. 1. Evidently the de- 
gree of yellowing is dependent upon the amount of 
rosin present. 

The sheets for experiment No. 3 were prepared 
with the same amounts of rosin, but with the addition 
of 1 percent, 2 percent and 4 percent of iron to the 
alum. The results obtained are shown in Fig. 2. 

For experiment No. 4, sheets were prepared with 
the same amounts of rosin and iron with the further 
addition of z 1 /* percent, 5 percent and 10 percent of 
gelatin. These results are shown in Fig. 3. 

The alum used to precipitate the rosin in all cases 
was iron-free alum, so that the effects of the different 
amounts of iron added could be observed. 

A consideration of the results obtained leads to the 
conclusion that however carefully the paper is pre- 
pared, the addition of rosin alone as a sizing material 
will, in the course of time, produce yellowing. Also 
that the presence of iron is a very important factor. 

'Communication from Ansco Research Laboratory. 



The curves shown in Fig. 2 are all considerably higher 
where iron is present and the degree of yellowing is 
more or less proportionate to the amount of iron intro- 
duced. It is generally conceded that an animal-sized 
paper will yellow more than one which is free of 
gelatin 

The result shown in Fig. 3 where definite amounts 
of gelatin were added bear this out very thoroughly. 
As the amount of gelatin is increased, so the degree of 
yellowing is increased. The form of the curve where 
gelatin is present is, however, of rather a different 
character. There is more or less of a tendency for a 
maximum amount of yellowing to take place within 
a given time, after which further yellowing is very 
slow or does not occur at all. It is obvious that light 
is the most important factor in the yellowing of paper. 
Next in order of importance is moist heat, and the 
least active of the three factors is dry heat. It is 
quite in keeping with theory that light should be the 
most potent factor in connectic>n with the yellowing 
of paper. Rosin alone is to some extent sensitive to 
light, and rosin and iron compounds, are undoubtedly 
very sensitive to light. The addition of gelatin also 
increases this sensitiveness to light action. 

It is possible that the presence of gelatin acts as an 
organic sensitizer in a manner somewhat analogous to 
its influence on the formation of a true photographic 
image. Microscopic sections were cut of the various 
samples of paper so that it was possible to examine the 
internal structure. In the case of the paper contain- 
ing only rosin size, it was found under the action of 
light that the yellowing produced was only superficial, 
the interior of the paper being hardly discolored at 
all. Under the influence of heat the discoloration ex- 
tended more deeply. In the case where iron was 
added in known quantities the discoloration pene- 
trated a little more deeply into the structure and 
where the paper was gelatin-sized in addition to the 
rosin and iron, the sheet was almost equally yellowed 
throughout. This also tends to prove that the gelatin 
has the power of acting in the manner of an organic 
sensitizer. 

A general consideration of the data obtained con- 
firms the work of Klemm, Zschokke and Schoeller, 
that the yellowing of paper is due to the formation of 
rosin-iron compounds, and that the amount of such 
compounds definitely determines the amount of yel- 
lowing to be expected. Schoeller has stated that in 
cases where the size is extracted early from samples 
so as to remove the yellowing compounds the pa- 
per will retain its original color. A number of the 
sample sheets were freed of rosin and subjected to 
the tests before described, in connection with the 
sheets made for experiment No. 1 — via. : without size. 
It was found that the sheet from which the sizing had 
been removed did not discolor greatly, but did not 
hold up as well as those which had never been sized 
at all. The rosin size, even if it is present in the 
paper only for a short time, undoubtedly has some 
influence upon the fibers and produces a certain 
amount of yellowing with time. 

Where it is necessary that a paper retain its orig- 
inal color, it is obviously important to use as little 
rosin size as possible, consistent with the degree of 
sizing required, and to use always an iron-free alum- 
inum sulphate as the precipitant. The animal sizing 
should be omitted or kept as low as possible. 



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